The present invention is directed to processes, and more specifically to processes for determining the identification of toner compositions. In one embodiment, the process of the present invention comprises forming a toner, or adding to a toner, a taggant, such as alkali metal bicarbonate like sodium bicarbonate, thereafter adding an acid to the toner like acetic acid, whereby there is formed visible effervescence. Thus, there can be added to toners with the bicarbonate an acid, and if effervescence occurs the toner is identified. When effervescence fails by the addition of the acid, the toner can be considered a different toner, for example a toner not supplied by Xerox Corporation. Accordingly, with the processes of the present invention toner compositions can be quickly and economically verified without further analysis thereof. The processes of the present invention are particularly useful to electrophotographic, especially xerographic, machine maintenance representatives since they can easily determine the manufacturer of the toner.
Illustrated in copending patent application U.S. Ser. No. 636,264, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, is a process for controlling a reproduction system comprising the steps of scanning an image to detect at least one taggant in at least one marking material forming said image; and issuing instructions to said reproduction system, wherein said instructions cause said reproduction system to take an action selected from the group consisting of (a) prohibiting reproduction of those portions of said image formed by a said marking material containing at least one predetermined detected taggant, and reproducing of all other portions of said image; (b) prohibiting reproduction of any part of said image upon detecting of at least one predetermined taggant; (c) reproducing only those portions of said image formed by a said marking material containing at least one predetermined taggant; (d) reproducing portions of said image formed by a said marking material containing at least one predetermined taggant in a different manner from that in which said system reproduces portions of said image formed by a said marking material not containing said at least one predetermined taggant; and (e) identifying a source of said image on the basis of detection of at least one predetermined taggant. It is indicated in this patent application that taggants may also provide security for important documents. The system of the copending application is capable of identifying documents (as well as marking materials) containing taggants which may be present in the toner or ink used to create an image on the document. Thus, copies made using such toner or ink doped with taggant can be readily identified. This can permit subsequent identification of the source of an image, generally by type of machine (for example for statistical data gathering) or more specifically by facility where a copy was made or even by the specific machine unit in which a copy was made (like for document tracking). Further, according to the copending application, documents or portions thereof may also be made incapable of being copied by using tagged marking materials for at least the portion of the document for which protection is desired. The identification of a predetermined taggant may signal the system to prevent scanning, storing or developing operations of the whole document or areas where the particular taggant is present.